Rising tension over aid bottleneck

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Flight delays at Banda Aceh airport, the main distribution point
for aid in Indonesia, are hampering the huge relief effort 11 days
after the tsunami struck.

In his first full briefing on the relief mission, the chief aid
co-ordinator for the United Nations, Michael Elmquist, admitted
there were problems with the aid effort.

He said aid had still not reached many areas on Indonesia's
isolated west coast and the UN had no idea of the condition of
people trapped there.

In an effort to avoid an outbreak of disease, the Indonesian
minister responsible for the relief effort, Alwi Shihab, announced
that work would start soon on four permanent camps to cope with a
flood of displaced people.

The UN believes there are 500,000 refugees in Aceh, the area hit
hardest by the disaster, but has contingency plans for as many as
800,000, nearly 20 per cent of the region's population. The death
toll from the tsunami is 153,263, nearly two thirds of whom died in
Aceh.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said none of the $1 billion he
has promised Indonesia in aid would be spent without Australia's
approval.

He said its delivery would not be curtailed by Indonesia's
continuing military operations against separatists in Aceh.

"No, they're aren't any strings. I mean we will quite separately
continue to argue for a peaceful settlement of that issue," Mr
Howard said.

"No money can be spent on a project without the approval of the
Australian Government and the Indonesian Government. It's a true
partnership and we'll obviously be very careful to ensure that the
money is well directed."

The Government is still finalising the details of how its $1
billion in aid will be spent, although $500 million in direct aid
grants will likely be used for rebuilding crucial infrastructure,
including the destroyed road along Aceh's west coast.

Money will also be spent training teachers, doctors, nurses,
engineers and administrators through a scholarship program.

At Banda Aceh airport yesterday a German air officer was trying
to find out who could arrange slots for aeroplanes carrying a field
hospital, while Australian and US air force personnel began
building a temporary plywood air traffic control tower that has no
radar.

Banda Aceh's air traffic control chief conceded the ongoing
problems but said many were beyond his control because the airport
was not set up for the 160 helicopter and plane movements a day.
"It's difficult getting planes out of Medan because the apron is
full and the same thing happens here," he said.

Mr Elmquist said even though the world's response was the
biggest ever to a natural disaster, there were not enough heli-
copters sufficiently well co-ordinated to reach survivors in
isolated communities.

"A large number of small communities still need to be reached .
. . some assistance has already been given to the people of
Meulaboh [the main west coast town] but not sufficient.
Unfortunately, outside Meulaboh a large number of small settlements
still need to be reached."

Mr Elmquist took a swipe at the US Navy, whose helicopters have
done the bulk of the work delivering emergency aid to west coast
survivors.

He said their failure to transport assessment teams to those
areas was affecting aid operation plans. "We had brief contact with
the Americans to try to sort this out. They say they take their
advice from the Indonesians," he said.

"The difficulty we've had with the US helicopters is they do not
actually stop on the ground, they go down and push off a load of
supplies and take off immediately again. To be frank, we would like
to have had better discussions at an earlier stage."

At the same time, US officials were briefing journalists about
the lack of a UN presence at the airport in Banda Aceh.

"Look around and see who's present, and you will also see who's
missing," said one. "I think you can read between the lines. They
[the UN] have their compound in town, their cars, but are they
getting food out? Are they setting up clinics?"

The Americans yesterday took assessment teams to west coast
areas to find out the size of the problem.

With Banda Aceh and other parts of the country dotted with
makeshift camps, Mr Elmquist said it was important to find suitable
sites and set them up quickly to stop disease from taking hold.

The first four camps will hold just 8500 people, too few to make
much impact on the problem facing Aceh.

Mr Shihab said he expected the refugees would voluntarily leave
their camps and that there would be no pressure to make them
go.

"We should encourage them to move and they have indicated they
want to leave their temporary settlements," he said.